Busted! Chesty mermaid splashes debate

'The Siren' (photo: South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

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Talk about a bust.

A sculpture of a mermaid in South Florida is causing debate among the public, as the cups runneth over on the artwork.

At issue is "The Siren," a piece created by artist Norman Gitzen, now on display at the Wellington Community Center.

The mermaid will surface at next Tuesday's village council meeting, after a single phone call by an anonymous woman was received at the town's switchboard.

"If they find her obscene, are they saying all large-breasted women are obscene?" Gitzen asked the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "The world is full of large-breasted women."

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Gitzen thinks he may have even been modest when creating the chest of the figure, and he's looking for an engineer to determine if the breasts are proportional to her 10-foot-tall, 6-foot-wide stature. Gitzen says such an analysis could find his work "underboobed."

Vice Mayor Lizbeth Benacquisto apparently has no problem with the mermaid, as she noticed it as a work in progress at the Wellington Art Society's annual Art Walk.

Attorney General John Ashcroft juggled the issue of nudity at the Justice Dept.

"Something about the piece sort of calls to you," she told the paper. "She's just so comfortable with herself and her form. It's just something very moving for me as a woman. The comfort of her with herself, I thought was great. And she's got a lot to be comfortable with."

Local resident Anita Nebb is OK with the statue, noting "Some people say they should cover the breasts. Let them go to the museum. Some people want to bring up their families with blinders on."

The situation is reminiscent of one at the U.S. Justice Department.

During the tenure of Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Spirit of Justice statue, which features an exposed right breast, was ordered covered up by blue drapes.

It was only after Ashcroft's resignation that the drapes were removed.